How come vBulletin has the better modification community?

Compared to IPB and XenForo despite the latter two being better forum scripts?

I mean, I'm not trying to say the latter two have no or even bad mod communities, but come on:

XenForo add ons: about 450

vBulletin 4 add ons: about 1600

IPB add ons in history: about 1600

The amount of add ons even a poor script like vB 4 gets is equal or more than what IPB and XenForo got in pretty much their entire history. And while people pull stuff from XenForo and charge it for IPB, it seems like a lot of vB's stuff always seems to be free...

Why is this? What could IPB and XenForo do to capture the same mod community that vBulletin still has somehow?

 

They need to capture a bigger share of the market. I say this simply because if you I were a "modder" who was either looking for Accolades or Profit for my skills, where would I go? I would go to where I perceive the bigger audience/buyers are. And there are other factors as well that I think are equally valid, such as time in the market. vBulletin has a huge lead over xF, I can't reasonable expect to see xF have as many mods as vB has. Also I would imagine that the slow down in development by xF has modders taking a wait a see attitude when it comes to developing new mods. As far as IPB, I've tried it as a forum owner (I don't mod) and didn't like it, just not my cup of tea. I also know a few others that have tried it and either went back to vB or went on to try the free alternatives.

And again I'm not a modder or developer, but I would dare to speculate that perhaps one platform is easier to mod than the other. I know the #1 reason I left iKonboard and phpBB, never to return is that adding a mod in vB is so damn much easier.

 

I would say it is due to the fact that they are still the oldest and still most likely the most used. Many people use them because of the age of the community so they know they can rely on the software.

If vB keep on the way they are though I believe that within good time Xenforo and IPB will overtake them but it will just take time for the communities to grow over time.

 

It took a while for IPB to have a hook system added and they had countless changes to their official modification database like IPS Beyond. IPS is also very protective of their modifications and skins in that they don't seem fond of third part sites that offer things.

 

I think it probably has to do with the fact that people find it easier to develop for vBulletin, thus the reason why there's so many add-ons/plugins for the software. I couldn't tell you about IPB because I only used it once. And it seems like vBulletin's mods are just going to grow with the launch of vBulletin 5. It's a shame that vBulletin hasn't implemented some of these add-ons onto their main software. Such as, the tagging/mentions feature that a mod allows you to do.

 

That is the one thing I always will disagree with. I rather have a software that is bare and tons of mods rather than implementing everything and removing it.

 

But why is it easier to develop for vBulletin? Both IPB and XenForo have decent hook and plugin systems, so why is one easier to develop for the than the others?

 

Honestly, most of the vBulletin plugins are rubbish. XenForo has quality plugins, so IMO doesn't really matter if they have more as such.

 

Vbulletin is the most popular, so it has the most addons. It's common sense. I think Vbulletin will continue to lead the way for future versions as well.

 

vbulletin 5 will be a lot more difficult to create modifications for. Skilled developers will likely find it easier.
IPS came late to the party but they are making up for it. Their addon community is still smaller than vbulletin, but their marketplace is helping. Many vbulletin sites are converting to IPS so it will only grow more.
XenForos future is very uncertain which does not help much.

If I search Google for "Powered by vBulletin® Version" and compare that to a search for "Community Forum Software by IP.Board" then the results are astonishing:
vbulletin 97 million results
IPB 68 million results

IPB used to have only 25% of vbulletin what had. Now its 65%. This indicates that vbulletin is loosing a lot of marketshare. At this rate it will not be long before IPB is the main forum software.